Are You Bothered By the Pea?

When I was in high school, I worked at the local theater and video store. You know, where you went to rent VCRs and the tapes that went into them? I know, I’m dating myself! It was an awesome job that had great hours, and fringe benefits like all the popcorn you could eat (as long as you brought your own container) and all the movies you could watch!

One of my favorite releases during that time was The Little Mermaid (aside from Pretty Woman, my all-time favorite movie). If I watched it once, I watched it a bjillion times. I could recite all of the dialogue and when no one was in the video store, I would belt out every word of every song along with Ariel. Shortly thereafter, when I was in college, Beauty and the Beast was released, and again—I was obsessed. I even had Beauty and the Beast sheets in my college apartment (don’t judge!).

I guess you could say, I was a bit of a late princess bloomer. And by then, it was more of the love story that I was drawn to (and the snappy songs) and it had little to do with crowns, gowns and privilege. Not that there is anything wrong with aspiring to true princess status!

But recently I was reminded of the story of the Princess and the Pea, where the prince and his mother, in a search for a “real” princess, put a pea under a a pile of mattresses for the princess to sleep on, which results in a horrible night’s sleep. Because only a real princess could be bothered by the smallest of inconveniences. What’s up with that moral?? In actuality, as I get older and really understand the princess stories, I’m glad that I have boys!

So as a grown up, I don’t know any real royalty, but I do have people in my life that become bothered by the smallest of “peas”–am I alone? They seem to work hard to root out a problem in every situation, even when there isn’t one. The energy suckers…the negative Nellies…the constant complainers. And try as I might, I just don’t get the joy in that. For me, being unhappy and complaining takes so much more energy than to just “be”…to roll with it…to let it go.

One of my favorite quotes from Oprah is, “Do you want peace, or do you want to be right?”

Sam would say that I’m not “at peace” at home all the time with him (I will admit), but with my kids, my friends, my clients, and with strangers in the world, I more often would rather have peace.

Want to cut in this line? Be my guest.

Want this parking spot? I could use the walk.

Want to change the meeting time, which now screws up every other item in our highly scheduled life? Perhaps we needed to pare down anyway.

For me, it comes down to gratitude. I have so much more to be thankful for then to complain about and in the grand scheme of today’s world, my goodness–my peas aren’t worth even mentioning!

So to all of you that can roll with it…keep on a rolling!

To the “royalty” in our midst…please take a page out of Elsa’s book…Let. It. Goooooooooooooo! It feels so much better!